I Believe in God and Science.

I believe in God and Science. I also believe that religion and science are the creation of Man, and thus subject to the motivations and influences of Man. While these institutions may have been born of a profound personal conviction, they are not the definition of God.

So how do I define God?

Basically, I believe that the universe is too complex, too intricately interrelated, too beautiful and spectacular to be the product of mere random chance. I believe in a continuum of intelligence, so that just as my intelligence is greater on that continuum than that of an amoeba, so too must there be a far greater intelligence than my own.

Is it so much of a leap, then, to imagine that this far greater intelligence consciously designed the universe? Why do modern scientists dismiss the idea that complex systems and processes were the product of something greater than random chemical reaction? After all, where did the elements and chemicals come from? Why do they have the possibility of interaction in the first place?

I believe that each of us has been created with a set of tools that we can choose to use as we see fit. These tools include curiosity, intelligence, compassion, discipline, love, ambition, drive, fear, joy, passion and patience. We have the capacity to explore and study and discover the beautiful intricacies of the universe, and then, once discovered, to look for more.

We also have been given choice, and the will to choose those tools that we wish to utilize. I find it sad when someone chooses then to believe only the dogma and doctrine of what is familiar and claim that that is the end of their need to question and explore. That type of choice, to me, is tragically limiting and wastes the gifts that we have been created to use. Too often the constructs of religion and the Church have been used as a weapon to beat down these gifts in order to satisfy the very human need for power and control over others.

That is why I differentiate between Faith and Religion. Faith is that wonderful capacity in humans that allows us to believe in something greater than ourselves, and, perhaps even more important, to dream. What an incredible gift to be given, the capacity to dream and believe that there is always something more that can be discovered? Perhaps then, this ability to dream is the most tangible evidence of God we have. Who else could conceive of giving the product of millennia of innumerable chemical reactions the intangible capacity to feel the presence of an intelligence and power greater than itself?

Religion can provide guidance, solace and direction to a large number of people. In it’s purest form, an organized religion creates a safe and wholesome community that is united by shared beliefs and ideals. Unfortunately, too often religions can fall prey to the baser nature of mankind, especially the hubris, greed and lust for power that can consume even the most devout of humans. When this happens, religion is tainted and twisted into a mechanism for prejudice and hate.

I am not condemning religion, nor am I condemning those who ascribe to any specific denomination. My objection with organized religion is when the very human leadership of these religions too often choose to supress the gifts of imagination, free choice and curiosity that we have been given, and instead choose to further their own agendas of prejudice and hate through twisted doctrine and dogma.

Our lives and existence are truly miraculous things, and to ignore them is to miss a fundamental component of being human. Science may not consider itself a religion, yet it ascribes to the same ultimate purpose as any religion, to explain our own existence and all of the infinite details that that explanation entails. Discovering these details for ourselves does not lesson the greater wonder that these details were there for us to discover in the first place. Why not ask, “Who put these details there?” or, at the very least, admit that this continual cycle of the discovery of new details indicates an order and system to the universe that we have yet to discover the nature of.

Admitting to the wondrous complexity of the universe in no way diminishes our quest to explore that complexity. Admitting that this self-same complexity may be the product of a greater intelligence than our own, merely means incorporating the human capacity for faith into our consciousness and our explorations.